for people who care about the West

NEPA gets short shrift in the courts

For more than a year, environmentalists have been
warning that the Bush administration is attempting an unprecedented
rollback of the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). A
recent study of NEPA court cases by the environmental group
Defenders of Wildlife indicates that such warnings have
merit.

Supporters of NEPA describe it as the Magna Carta
of environmental legislation. It requires federal agencies to
evaluate major projects proposed for public lands and waters,
through environmental impact statements and less-comprehensive
environmental assessments.

Defenders of Wildlife examined
172 court cases that were argued during 2001 and 2002 by Bush
officials. The group found that 54 percent of the time, the
administration presented “NEPA-hostile” arguments to
the court. According to the study, administration lawyers have
tried to sidestep the law by using unfounded legal arguments, by
trying to assert that no NEPA review is necessary because likely
impacts are not significant, and by presenting deceptive or
inaccurate information to the courts.

For the full report,
go to www.defenders.org/publications/nepareport.pdf.